Glenn Patrick Lazarus (born 11 December 1965) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer, and a former Australian Senator. An Australian international and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...

representative , Lazarus won premierships with the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite c ...

and

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

, who he also captained. He is the only player in the history of the game to win grand finals with three separate clubs, with the grand final wins also being the first for each club. He is remembered as one of the greatest players in the history of rugby league. After his retirement from football he assisted several NRL clubs in a coaching capacity. In the 2013 federal election, Lazarus was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a t ...

for the state of Queensland as the lead Queensland candidate for the

Palmer United Party The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is a currently deregistered Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party ...

(PUP). He became PUP Senate leader at the commencement of his term on 1 July 2014. He quit PUP on 13 March 2015 citing issues with its leader

Clive Palmer Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings. Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, the Palmer C ...

, and established his own political party, the Glenn Lazarus Team. He did not retain his seat in the 2016 federal election. In 2021 Lazarus was inducted into the NSW Rugby League Hall of Fame. In June 2021, Lazarus was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to rugby league".

Education

Lazarus was born in

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...

, New South Wales. He attended Queanbeyan South Primary School and Karabar High School, Queanbeyan. He excelled at swimming and football, both

Australian rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and especially

. Lazarus is of Greek heritage.

Rugby league career

Lazarus achieved a formidable reputation in

prop forward A rugby league team consists of thirteen players on the field, with 4 substitutes on the bench. Each of the thirteen players is assigned a position, normally with a standardised number, which reflects their role in attack and defence, although pl ...

position at club, state (NSW), and international levels. He was the first player in the history of the game to win premierships with three clubs:

and

. Lazarus was also named Players' Player for two consecutive

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours t ...

s: 1990 and 1994. In addition, Lazarus scored the first rugby league try at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern ...

during a

game.

Canberra

Lazarus began his first-grade career with the Canberra Raiders in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, and was selected to make his debut for New South Wales in the 1989 State of Origin series. He played a starring role in the club's victory over the

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995–96) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful i ...

in the

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

. He travelled with the Raiders to England for the

1989 World Club Challenge The 1989 World Club Challenge (also known as the Foster's World Club Challenge due to sponsorship by brewers, Foster's) was the third ever and first official World Club Challenge match. 1989's NSWRL season premiers, the Canberra Raiders travelle ...

, which was lost to

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

. Lazarus played in the Raiders' victory over the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrit ...

in the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

grand final. At the end of the

1990 NSWRL season The 1990 New South Wales Rugby League season was the eighty-third season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup during the premiership season, which culminated in a g ...

, he went on the

1990 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France The 1990 Kangaroo Tour was the seventeenth Kangaroo Tour, where the Australian national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) travelled to Europe and played eighteen matches against British and French club ...

. He also played for Canberra in their grand final loss to Penrith in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

Brisbane

In the summer preceding the 1992 season, Lazarus was recruited from Canberra by his former coach at the Raiders, Wayne Bennett and joined the Brisbane Broncos, with whom he played the largest portion of his career. During the

1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand The 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australasia was a tour by the Great Britain national rugby league team, nicknamed the 'Lions', of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand which took place between May and July 1992. The tour was the last of ...

, he helped Australia retain

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

. He played for the Broncos at prop forward in the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

grand final victory over the

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

, following which he travelled with the Broncos to England, where he played at prop forward in the

1992 World Club Challenge The 1992 World Club Challenge match was contested by the 1991–92 Rugby Football League season champions Wigan and the 1992 NSWRL season's premiers, the Brisbane Broncos. The match took place on Friday night, 30 October in England, during th ...

against British champions

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington ...

, helping Brisbane become the first NSWRL club to win the match in Britain. He then played for Australia at prop forward in the World Cup final victory over Great Britain at Wembley Stadium. Lazarus played for the Broncos at prop forward in the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

grand final victory again over the St. George Dragons. This constituted a remarkable feat of playing in five consecutive grand finals. During the

1994 NSWRL season The 1994 NSWRL season (known as the 1994 Winfield Cup Premiership due to sponsorship from Winfield (cigarette), Winfield) was the eighty-seventh season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs, including 14 from within the ...

, Lazarus played at prop forward for defending premiers Brisbane when they hosted British champions

for the

1994 World Club Challenge The 1994 MMI World Club Challenge was a replay of the 1992 World Club Challenge, with 1993–94 Rugby Football League season champions Wigan facing the 1993 NSWRL season premiers, the Brisbane Broncos, this time in Australia. Wigan were cle ...

and lost. In 1996, he captained the Broncos in a game against the Penrith Panthers due to

Allan Langer Allan Jeffrey "Alfie" Langer AM (born 30 July 1966) is an Australian former multi-award-winning rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and worked as an assistant coach for the Australian national team, the Queensla ...

being injured. He was selected to go on the

1994 Kangaroo Tour The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) played a number of matches against British and Fre ...

, where he was voted the Players' Player of the tour. It was only a broken (dislocated) ankle suffered during a

1997 World Club Championship The 1997 World Club Championship was an expansion of the World Club Challenge concept by Super League. The rugby competition was restructured to include all 22 clubs from the Australasian Super League and the Super League championships and was ...

match that prevented Lazarus from playing in that year's Super League grand-final-winning Brisbane side.

Melbourne

Lazarus was recruited to the newly established

by his former CEO (

John Ribot John Ribot () (born John Ribot de Bresac on 3 March 1955), also known by the nickname of "Reebs", is an Australian sports administrator, former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 1980s. Once a Queensland State of Origin and Australian int ...

) and teammate ( Chris Johns) from the Broncos, both then responsible for setting up and managing the growth of new club in Melbourne. Lazarus commenced with the club in its inaugural year, 1998 and was named as the club's first captain and also given a newspaper column to write in ''

The Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald Sun ...

''. He went on to lead the Melbourne Storm at prop forward in their 1999 grand final victory. Lazarus announced his retirement from the game with five premierships for three clubs (Canberra 1989–90, Brisbane 1992–93 and Melbourne 1999).

Post-playing

In 2000, Lazarus was awarded the

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...

for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. In 2003, he was one of the first four former players inducted into the Broncos' official Hall of Fame. In 2005, the western grandstand of

Olympic Park Stadium An Olympic Park is the central sports complex of an Olympic Games (and that article includes a list of Olympic Parks). Olympic Park or Olympic Park Stadium may also refer to: Olympic parks and stadia called "Olympic Park" Australia * Olympic Par ...

was named the Glenn Lazarus stand in his honour. Lazarus spent many years coaching junior rugby league in Brisbane. He also assisted the Canberra Raiders and Brisbane Broncos in an assistant coaching capacity. In February 2008, Lazarus was named in the list of Australia's ''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007), which was commissioned by the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

and

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives com ...

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Lazarus has been

612 ABC Brisbane ABC Radio Brisbane (callsign: 4QR) is an ABC Local Radio station in Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of the largest stations in the network, serving as a base for Queensland programming - many programs are broadcast across the ABC Local Radio ...

Breakfast rugby league tipster since 2008. In 2008 New South Wales announced their rugby league team of the century, naming Lazarus at prop. At the end of the 2008 Queensland Cup season, Lazarus, who served as assistant coach at the

Ipswich Jets The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland. Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition. Original ...

club under the departing

Kevin Walters Kevin David Walters (born 20 October 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the Head Coach of the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a premiership-winning ...

, was named as head coach of the club from the 2009 season. Lazarus stepped down to focus on business interests in 2010. Lazarus continues to undertake motivational speaking engagements and corporate appearances. He has also worked as a volunteer and ambassador for various not for profit organisations including the

RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...

and

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

Political career

Lazarus was selected to head the

(PUP) Senate ticket in Queensland at the 2013 federal election and was elected on a 9.89 percent primary vote. He got to the required 14.3 percent quota from a favourable preferential tally from

group voting ticket A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member electoral divisions with s ...

s. His term as a PUP Senator commenced on 1 July 2014 and he became PUP Senate leader. He announced his resignation from PUP through

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

on 13 March 2015 and became an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

Senator. He wrote: "I have a different view of team work. Given this, I felt it best that I resign from the party and pursue my senate role as an independent senator." In May 2015, Lazarus announced his intention to form his own party. The party, Glenn Lazarus Team, was registered on 9 July 2015. Lazarus and the Glenn Lazarus Team were unsuccessful in the 2016 federal election and did not secure any seats in the Parliament. As this was a

double dissolution A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives ( lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissoluti ...

election, Lazarus' Senate term ended on 2 July 2016. The party was voluntarily deregistered on 14 July 2017.

Personal life

Lazarus is married and has three children.

References

External links

Glenn Lazarus official websiteCareer Achievements

Parliamentary website

Glenn Lazarus voting record: TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, Glenn 1965 births Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Australia national rugby league team players Australian people of Greek descent Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Australian sportsperson-politicians Brisbane Broncos players Canberra Raiders players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Ipswich Jets coaches Melbourne Storm players Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Members of the Australian Senate New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players United Australia Party (2013) members of the Parliament of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Rugby league players from Queanbeyan Rugby league props